Many remain without power, flooding cuts off neighborhoods

Friday

A punishing late winter storm walloped the South Shore on Friday and Saturday, leaving scores of homes and businesses without power and many coastal neighborhoods cleaning up after severe flooding.

Wind-whipped floodwaters battered coastal homes Friday afternoon, as rescuers in boats and front-end loaders raced across the South Shore to rescue people stranded in homes and cars.

It was the first day of a two-day northeast storm that is not expected to end until Saturday night or Sunday.

More than 335,000 electrical customers remained without power as of 3:30 p.m. Saturday, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency said. Half of them were in Plymouth and Norfolk counties.

In Plymouth County, 135,000 homes and businesses had no electricity, two-thirds of the total. In Norfolk County, 66,000 customers were in the dark, or about a quarter of the total.

Traffic signals were out all over the region on Saturday and there were lines at gas stations that had electricity.

POWER FAILURE MAP

Governor Charlie Baker declared a state of emergency.Officials in Duxbury, Hull and Marshfield issued travel bans Friday night. In Quincy, a second round of evacuations was conducted in the Houghs Neck neighborhood.

Widespread street flooding came in on the back of a 3-foot storm surge late Friday morning and was predicted to return to parts of the South for a third high tide early Saturday afternoon and possibly again Saturday night and Sunday. But the worst was expected last night, with an astronomical high tide joining a 4-foot storm surge that officials feared would destroy some homes. A coastal flood watch remains in effect on the South Shore until 3 a.m. Sunday.

Even before Friday night’s high tide, the storm had brought much of Eastern Massachusetts to a halt. Flooded roads were closed up and down the coasts. Schools were closed in Quincy and coastal towns from Hull to Marshfield. More than 480 flights were canceled at Logan Airport, according to FlightAware.com, and Amtrak suspended all train service between New York and Boston. Some trains on the Greenbush and Plymouth/Kingston lines were canceled because of flooding and others were delayed because of downed trees.

High winds ripped sections of roofs from some buildings. Both the Ross Elementary School and the South Middle School in Braintree sustained roof damage from the storm, according to Mayor Joseph Sullivan.

Trees toppled onto homes and cars. Six homes in Braintree were hit by trees. A driver in Marshfield had to be pulled from a car submerged nearly up to its rooftop.

As of 4 p.m., more than 132,000 utility customers were without power, including more than 3,100 in Weymouth, 2,100 in Quincy and 1,000 in Marshfield. Several towns had opened emergency shelters.

Officials, fearing flooding along the coast on par with a storm in October 1991 or even the famed Blizzard of ‘78, urged residents to evacuate coastal areas ahead of a Friday morning high tide. Many heeded the warning, including at least 185 people in Scituate alone, but others stayed put in boarded-up homes or even tried their luck driving through flooded streets.

Overconfident drivers and stubborn storm watchers were caught off guard by flood waters from Quincy to Duxbury and had to be rescued by crews in boats, backhoes and high-water vehicles, much to the frustration of public safety officials. After pulling the Marshfield driver from a car, a drenched and clearly exasperated Police Chief Philip Tavares issued a stern warning for anyone tempted to check out the destruction caused by the storm.”We knew what Mother Nature was going to do, but so many people didn’t heed the warning,” he said as waves crashed over a seawall behind him. “They put themselves in jeopardy, public safety officials in jeopardy. They’ve totaled their cars and they’re lucky they’re alive.”

The Friday morning high tide swept flood waters into areas that hadn’t been underwater in decades, including parking lots outside Quincy office buildings, where cars became stuck in high water and some workers were left stranded. The entire town of Hull was cut off from the mainland for more than two hour until flood waters receded enough for roads to reopen.

Close to 100 people in Quincy were rescued as of Friday afternoon, most of them from Houghs Neck, Germantown and the area around Post Island Road, where front-end loaders and boats were brought in to bring people out of flooded homes and cars. Helen Carson was among those rescued from a Sea Street apartment building in the bucket of a backhoe, and later dried off at the Fox and Hound restaurant after manager Steve Curran, picked them up.”They’ve been very kind to us,” she said.

The morning high tide left a 1-mile stretch of Sea Street, from Noanet Avenue to the Joseph Street Salt Marsh, under as much as 8 feet of water. Quincy Police Sgt. Patrick Faherty said 911 calls requesting rescues started coming in about an hour before high tide as the Adams Shore area, which is bordered to the north by Quincy Bay and the south by the Fore River, quickly filled with water. “The issue we’re having is the easterly wind,” he said. “It’s keeping all this water in that would have normally gone out.” Quincy police and fire departments closed off Sea Street at the intersection of Palmer Street and used the three-block stretch before flooding began as a “rescue headquarters,” Faherty said. Dozens of fire and police trucks filled the street, while ambulances waited to transport anyone in need of medical attention to Quincy Medical Center. Five MBTA buses were being used to keep residents and rescuers warm. The flooding left residents near Post Island in Quincy completely underwater and Houghs Neck residents trapped in their neighborhood. The National Guard and Quincy Police Marine Unit used two five-ton high water vehicles, two front-end loaders and three boats to rescue residents. More than 1,800 homes from Palmer Street to the tip of Houghs Neck were without power. “We just encourage anyone in the Houghs Neck or Post Island area who needs to be rescued to call 911. We will come get you,” Faherty said around 4 p.m. Friday. “This is an ongoing operation. It’s more likely than not that we’ll be here for several hours if not overnight.”

Friday afternoon low tide offered only limited relief, with storm surge keeping many areas flooded long after the tide receded.”That’s what makes this storm so severe, we aren’t really going to have a low tide,” Joe Rossi, chairman of the Marshfield Citizens Coastal Coalition said. “In the January storm, it was one 15-foot tide and then it went away. If our low tide is 14 feet, we’re going to have a problem tonight.”

Officials, calling the storm “extremely dangerous” and “life-threatening,” had warned Thursday that it could have the power to destroy coastal homes and severely damage others. Gov. Baker signed an order Thursday activating 200 National Guardsmen and women, but warned that even with the help of a fleet of 34 vehicles. rescuers might not be able to reach people at the height of the storm.

“Do not ride out the storm in your home if you are told to evacuate,” a stern Gov. Charlie Baker warned at a press conference Thursday afternoon.

As the first high tide of the storm arrived in Scituate late Friday morning, waves as tall as 25 to 30 feet broke within 100 yards of shore and crashed over the seawall, sending water onto back decks and flooding Oceanside Drive between 2nd and 6th avenues. Scituate public safety officials said the morning high tide was more intense than the one that came with the storm this January, but would be dwarfed by the one expected last night.”We expect more flooding tonight, worse than last month and worse than this morning,” Scituate Fire Chief John Murphy said midday. “The afternoon winds are going to be really high. We’re expecting more power outages, more demands on our shelters and tonight we may have blackout conditions. Rescues are going to be very, very difficult.” Officials were urging those who have evacuated to stay away from their homes and those who remained not to try leaving on their own. Scituate Town Administrator James Boudreau said he wasn’t sure how many people stayed in their homes in coastal areas.

“We got through the first tide fairly well,” he said. “It was about what we expected.”As of 1 p.m. Friday, fire chief John Murphy said there had been no rescues. Officials cut off power to 11th Street because of hot wires at one home, Public works crews had closed Front Street, Edward Foster Road, Surfside Drive, Central Avenue and others two hours before the high tide.

Front Street business owners were preparing to close Friday morning as the Scituate Harbor parking lot began to fill with water. Carol Watt, who has owned the harbor’s Coffee Corner for four years, was getting supplies off the floor of her shop and lining the building with sandbags.”We haven’t had to do this before,” she said. “With the last storm, the water just came up within six inches of the door. I’m a little nervous because of all the electrical we have. It’s really coming in fast.”

In Quincy, flooding closed Sea Street at the Houghs Neck Split as well as East Squantum Street, Pond Street, Victory Road in Marina Bay, McGrath Highway and Southern Artery at Brackett Street. Floodwaters in Braintree came up over Smith Beach on the Fore River and flooded Edgehill Road and fields on Watson Park.